Cotton Mather, Magnalia Christi Americana, or, The Ecclesiastical History of New-England, from Its First Planting in the Year 1620, unto the Year of Our Lord 1698. In seven books. London: Printed for Thomas Parkhurst, 1702.
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Described by American bibliographer Wright Howes as the 'most famous eighteenth-century American book,' this work is essentially a history of colonial Massachusetts. Mather devotes chapters to discovery, settlement, biography, and Indian wars, as well as church history, an account of doctrinal conflicts, and a history of Harvard College. Scholars have also identified Mather's own self-promotion and Puritan theological assertions in this, his most ambitious book. The library has copies previously owned by Gov. James Bowdoin and Thomas Wallcut.
Loan: American Academy of Arts and Sciences.